Zotac Magnus One mods

[codinghorror]

I'm a huge fan of the Magnus One.. until I get my hands on Beast Canyon, I think it's the NUC to beat in terms of power to size ratio. I love Phantom Canyon but the RTX 2060 is a tad too underpowered for 4k these days, and that power brick.. sheesh.

Excellent review at AnandTech:

Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS ONE SFF Gaming PC Review: Desktop Comet Lake Charges Up with Ampere

www.anandtech.com

I do feel like there are some essential mods you need to make to the Magnus One for it to be great. Inspired by this existing forum topic and @LukeD

First, you gotta ditch that TERRIBLE and NOISY cpu cooler for the well known Noctua NH-L9i. Pretty simple though it does void the warranty, you gotta detach that back plate to get the stock cooler out.

Second, UPGRAYEDD with two D's for a double dose of that pimpin' to a 120mm slim fan for better cooling. There's even a cool 3d-printed 92mm to 120mm adapter out there for this in the above linked thread, mine sadly didn't arrive yet because the site sent the wrong item, right now the 120mm fan is being held in by friction which is fine

Third, get out yer dremel and snips and remove the unnecessary inner part of the metal mesh on left, right, and side panels for dramatically improved airflow.

(This is kind of a pain on the top panel, you will need needlenose tin snips and patience, but on the sides, it's easy with dremel cutting disc.)

I also like to snip the rear panels but this part is optional, it's a bit of an OCD micro-optimization on my part feel free to skip this step, consider it a bonus one..

Once you do all this you get super solid airflow and .. it's quiet, even under full blown furmark + prime95, which is an ABSURD level of load you're not gonna see in any real use, it's just a smooth whirring.. I measured it about 3 inches away with a DBA meter on my phone during the furmark + prime95 (330w+ load!!) and I got around 50 DBa

Oh, and I also

- dumped the SATA drive and shifted to a single 2TB NVMe drive with a little black heatsink as well. Spinny rust! Who even uses that any more!

- of course added another 16gb DIMM so we get dual-channel memory, total of 32gb

Anyway, I _LOVE_ the Zotac Magnus One and I think it's the SFF machine to beat in terms of power to size ratio.. and once you do the above mods, you also end up with a surprisingly quiet machine, even under load!

 

[codinghorror]

Also one note about the top/left/right metal mesh panels: you need them, because on the left and right they are part of what hold the panels into the machine, and on the top, the metal provides structural integrity for the whole top fan assembly. The top was definitely a pain though, that's a lot of tin snipping.. but worth it for the enhanced airflow!

 

[codinghorror]

Also here are the thermals under load, with the enhanced airflow

 

[comagoosie]

I think it's the SFF machine to beat in terms of power to size ratio

Sounds like them be fightin words on the performance per liter(board)

Nice to see such positive words about the magnus one and the mods results. Though the mods may be a bit too DIY for the target audience.

 

[codinghorror]

Oooh neat a leaderboard @comagoosie ! Has anyone entered the Zotac Magnus One in that topic?

I dremeled down two screws so I could mount a single screw in the upper right hand corner of the Noctua to hold the 120mm slim fan.

(I have two of these Zotac systems, that's how much of a fan of them I am!)

 

[sp8rk]

I decided to print a new front panel for mine, and include a 120mm fan, the machine says much cooler now, do t know why they never did this in the first place.

Zotac Magnus One by sp8rk

I saw this from a YouTuber called DoTheDiy and thought it was a great design, unfortunately was unable to get the model so the next best thing was to design one myself.I split the model into two parts as I have an Ender 3 and the build plate is not large enough, but this didn't cause any issues...

www.thingiverse.com